Fat Tax Thesis

When children do not eat a healthy meal, their concentration and energy become more difficult to manage. The “Journal of School Health” issued a study in 2008 about the eating behaviors of approximately 5,000 school children. The research showed that children who ate more fruits and vegetables, accomplished higher grades on tests compared with children who consumed a high-fat, high-salt diet

In 2009, a prestigious think tank in Washington, D.C. proposed a 10% tax on what they called “Fattening food of little nutritional value.” They stated that based on their study, such a tax could raise 500 billion dollars in tax revenue over 10 years, which could be put towards paying off America's ever expanding national debt (Waist). Americans spend an extremely disproportional amount of money on health care costs related to lifestyle diseases. In recent years, Americans spent $190 billion on healthcare related to obesity, which is over one-fifth of total annual healthcare spending (Baird). Because Americans would have more money to spend, a tax on fattening foods and beverages could promote economic growth for private businesses and an increase in revenue for the

problems of our nation’s youth. School needs to realize that the decisions that they make can

Childhood obesity is a major cause for concern within the United States. This is mainly due to children not getting the require nutrition that they need. Although study show that there is a decrease in obesity in children, it still remains at an all-time high. Children are failing to eat as healthy as they should, and it has become an even bigger problem now that they aren’t getting the require amount of food in their diets. The USDA made a decision a couple of years ago to reduce the amount of food given to children while they are at school. This hurts them tremendously, because the majority of the food they eat comes from being at school all day. The other half lies on the parents when they go home and eat dinner. It is very important for children to eat healthy and eat the required amount of food according to various dietary guidelines. First Lady Michelle Obama has started a new campaign to help kids and parents combat obesity in children. One thing that the campaign has placed emphases on is getting healthier food within school. Although they are getting healthier foods in school they are beginning to change the proportion they are giving students. Through the First Lady’s Let’s Move campaign students should be giving healthier foods and also be allowed to have the correct proportion to help them maintain a healthy diet.

According to National Heart Lung and Blood institute, in America, 1 in 6 kids are obese. Although obesity might not seem that much of a big deal, it is. Childhood obesity can lead to much worse health problems later in adulthood, such as higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, hypertension, and even cancer, among many chronic health issues all caused by obesity. Many kids get about half of their daily calories at school, and for some, school is where they get all of their daily calories. Since school plays such a big part in affecting the lives of many kids across America, special attention should be shown to nutrition. This can help kids with obesity, as well as kids that don’t have much food at home to eat and only rely on school food. For many poor kids, they don’t have a lot of healthy foods at home, because they can’t afford it. So, they rely on cheap school food for their vitamins and nutrients. Because cafeteria foods, like hamburgers or beef and cheese nachos, are highly processed and filled with unnecessary fat ,those kids that rely on school for food won’t get the nutrients and vitamins they need and will go home hungry. Since kids are growing up, it is especially important for them to get the right food they need to grow up healthy and strong, and in a place full of kids that are growing up, it is only right to provide them with good and healthy food that will allow the kids to grow up into healthy adults without obesity, malnourishment, or any kind of health

Annotated Bibliography Berl, Rachel. “Why We're So Fat.” U.S. News and World Report, 16 Aug. 2012, health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2012/08/16/why-were-so-fat-whats-behind-the-latest-obesity-rates. This article pulls evidence from the CDC and other credible sources to write about how our nation's trends in obesity are.

Obesity has been a problem in the United States for far too long, and it is time for the government to take action and protect the health of its citizens. This could be accomplished by taxing junk food and subsidizing healthy food, such as fruits, vegetables, and meats. The easiest foods to find and the cheapest foods to buy are foods that contain large amounts of calories and few nutrients (“What’s Behind the Obesity Epidemic”). This means that obesity disproportionately affects poor families (Mitchell, Catenacci, Wyatt, & Hill). In order to redress this issue, the government should put extra taxes on foods with high amounts of calories with few nutrients to act as a deterrent and keep people from buying them. The money gained from the taxes

Of all of the problems that dishearten children today, the one that bothers them the most is being unhealthy. Five out of six students from the Manalapan Englishtown Middle School agree that there should be a change in the schools' cafeteria foods; they came up with a solution to help kids be healthy. Unhealthy foods should be eliminated in schools for many reasons. First of all, kids concentrate better when they are healthy. Being healthy helps children to concentrate better because if they are healthy in the inside and the outside, they will not have to worry about their health or how they look. Secondly, having only healthy foods in school help parents to take good care of their kids. For instance, imagine a mom that is a seventh

Two-thirds of Americans are overweight. This fact is known that we need to do something about our health and obesity rate. An option that has been brought up time and time again is the Fat Tax. This would be a small tax applied to fatty and unhealthy food. Ideally, this tax would decrease consumption of things like fast food. Despite the well intentioned idea, things like this don’t always work. The Fat Tax would cause impoverish people to fall deeper into financial trouble and cost the government more on welfare as well as well as barely decreasing the actual obesity rate.

With a growing epidemic of obesity in America, some states and lawmakers have resorted to taking unconventional measures in order to counter the growing issue. Many legislators are debating the effectiveness of a “fat tax” would be on limiting the consumption of soda, high fat foods, and high sugar foods, and ultimately reducing the rate of morbidity and mortality due to obesity. The idea is that long term consumption of high fat, high sugar foods and drinks lead to many health problems, so making them more expensive and less accessible should decrease the health issues related to their consumption.

There are better alternatives for preventing obesity than a fat tax. The policy-improving RAND Corporation examined twenty international programs which offered subsidies for fruit and vegetables. Study author Ruopeng An wrote: “All but

Every time you walk into a grocery store you see hundreds of different types of unhealthy foods like chips, cookies, cakes waiting for you to buy and eat. But most people forget that those types of foods are not good for you. Since there is such a huge variety of delicious food items on sale at the store we do not look at the bad consequences that we have to face after eating them. Because of the unhealthy eating habits of citizens in the United States, there has been a drastic increase in obesity. That is why I think that it is very necessary to enforce a fat tax on fatty foods to ensure that all the citizens of the United States are eating healthy foods on a daily basis.

Economic costs of obesity are increasing and will continue to do so if nothing is done. Healthy Communities for A Healthy Future state that the estimated annual health care costs related to obesity are 190 billion dollars. This is 21% of total health care costs. This includes direct costs, such as preventive and treatment services, while indirect costs include income lost to days debilitated or future income lost to death. On an individual level, an obese person will cost 42% more in health care than a person of healthy weight. A tax directly related to products known to cause obesity would offset the cost of health care, and hopefully result in less obesity in the Nation.

The question whether or not to put a tax on sugary beverages and junk food has made its way to our legislatures desks because of the overwhelming population of obese people throughout the world. The alarming consequences of obesity have given the government reasoning to take charge and try to rectify the problem. They believe that by taxing certain food items that are high in sugar and salt content, trans fat, and saturated fat the percentage of obese persons will decline.

Don’t do drugs! We've all heard this popular slogan or statement used before somewhere in our day to day lives; especially as teenagers going to public schools. As students, we learn at our schools the dangers of all of the different types drugs and what they could do to us if we take them and get addicted. However, one issue that we do not talk about at schools is the dangers of unhealthy foods and the effects that it has on our bodies. In some cases, this is even a bigger epidemic than the one from drugs and is giving people in many cases diabetes and death. Children every year are growing up more and more obese with the numbers increasing only as time goes on and foods get worse. With that being stated, I believe that these kids should not have to suffer the consequences of eating the bad foods and should get educated on what is actually good to eat. The school of education needs to take into account these issues and make it so that students have to take mandatory classes on the food topic and how to cook better foods. Taking a class on such a thing not only benefits the students and their lives, but the future of America as well.